Approximately Midnight
by fictionalcandie
Summary: Sirius takes a walk, and Lily discovers that not all things that go bump in the night are scary. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter is the intellectual property of JKR blah blah blah blah blah, and some other schtuff. (Basically, it's not mine, so please don't sue me.)

**Author's Note:** I wrote this for a very good friend of mine; she called the pairing her "guilty pleasure" and mentioned that she didn't see enough of it that was well-written. And, since I write, and love my friend, I wrote her some.

I've never written this pairing before. I was having trouble with it, and then _this _occurred to me. I had to reread Snape's Worst Memory for the twenty-millionth time, but eh, what does it matter? Anything in the pursuit of giftfic!

... The fic, then.

**o.o.o.o**

It was very late. Very, very late. Sirius shouldn't have been up and wandering the corridors, or at least shouldn't have been up wandering the corridors by himself. But he hadn't felt like waking James for a midnight stroll.

Truth be told, he was actually trying to get _away_ from James. The incident that afternoon, by the lake... he'd been thinking about it. James had, too, of course, but Sirius had actually been _thinking_, not just brooding about how unreasonable Evans was. Sirius, after hours of thought, had come to a conclusion that disturbed him, rather irrationally.

Evans actually _liked _James.

Or, at least, didn't _hate _him. Sure, she obviously disliked _parts _of James, but not the whole _package_.

And why this disturbed him, he wasn't entirely sure.

A shuffling noise to his right had Sirius whirling around and drawing his wand. Seeing what had made the noise, he let out a breath and lowered the wand slightly.

"Well now," he said evenly, covering his surprise rather well, he thought. "Bit late for your sort to be out and about, isn't it?"

Face shining pale in the moonlight, Lily Evans lifted her chin in a fabulous show of annoyance and snapped, "I've more right to be out here than you, Black. At least I'm a Prefect."

"Yeah, 's why I'd think you'd be in be...d..." Sirius trailed off and his wand arm fell limply to his side as exactly what he was seeing finally caught all the way up with his brain. "Blimey, Evans, you've been _crying_."

"No, I haven't!" she snapped, quickly wiping her face on the sleeve of her robes. She was still glaring at him. "And it's not as if it would make much difference to you, anyway."

Her watery anger at his noticing something so simple hit a nerve in Sirius, and provoked him into doing something he otherwise _never _would have done. He stepped closer and used his thumb to brush away a fresh tear from her cheek.

It occurred to him why she might be crying, just possibly, and he vowed to never tell James about this.

He tsked softly, a noise from the back of his throat, looking down at her and smiling with both sides of his mouth. "Come on, Lily, I'm not _heartless_."

"What are you-- _Black_," she hissed, staring at him, justifiably confused. She hadn't pushed him away yet.

Sirius caught himself thinking it was an adorable expression, on her face, and to get the thought out of his head, leaned down and brushed his lips against hers.

She was very still for a moment, and then she shoved him backwards. "_Sirius_!" she shrieked, indignant and even more confused, and he was smugly pleased that he'd managed to shock her into using his first name.

"Mm, Lily?" He was still smiling, using his eye this time, too.

"What was-- What are you _doing_?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing angrily.

Sirius was even more smugly pleased to note that her eyes were no longer swimming with tears. Instead, they were clear and bright, blazing angry green.

"Well, you're not crying anymore, are you?" he returned flippantly, taking his hand from her face and shoving it in his pocket.

Her lips twitch, and for the briefest of seconds, Sirius thought she might actually smile. But she managed to turn it into a frown before it showed up, looking at him sternly now.

"Go to bed, Black," she ordered him firmly, like a Prefect catching a housemate out of the Tower after hours, as if she hadn't just been crying and he hadn't just kissed her and they hadn't both enjoyed it.

Sirius shrugged and turned to stroll off, pointedly not in the direction of Gryffindor Tower, and called over his shoulder, "Don't go pretending that was James just a minute ago, Evans."

He actually heard her laugh, slightly and very quietly, but it was a laugh.

Sirius Black had just made Lily Evans laugh. James Potter had never done _that_.

He smirked. He was very proud of himself.


End file.
